[lukevanoort]

Originally Posted by wadidievrdo2u

you have to be careful when "launching" if you endanger other robots on the feild and other feild components you are going to have a bunch of reffs telling you to do something about your manipulator.

I think you are committing a judgment error that I have noticed many on my own team doing. Just because the ball is HUGE, doesn't mean it is necessarily more destructive than a smaller object. Consider this, a trackball (assuming 8lbs, which, from the reports here, seems to be a more accurate weight than the 10lbs the manual reports) traveling at a rather fast speed of 5m/s (11mph or 16ft/s) has roughly the same kinetic energy as fully laden robot (120lb robot + 13lb battery + 15lb bumpers = 148lbs) traveling at 3.7 ft/s. I know from personal experience that FIRST fields can take impacts by object with a more KE than the ball without breaking. Robots... I can see them being damaged, but that is just part of the challenge of game. Build 'em robust, folks.